Warner Bros. aren’t exactly known for their smart decision-making. They were the ones who booted Zack Snyder off Justice League, resulting in what should have been their Avengers ending up as a shambling, confusing and ugly mess that nobody liked. They’re also the ones who took Suicide Squad away from David Ayer and recut the movie so it made no sense. Their CEO Kevin Tsujihara (largely responsible for the previous two bad decisions), meanwhile, resigned in disgrace when it was revealed he helped a woman get an audition in exchange for sexual favors. But lately, they’ve been doing a bit better, with outside bet Joker becoming the first R-rated movie to gross $1 billion.
But hold onto your hats folks, because we’re now hearing that they’re considering another incredibly dumb decision. Warner Bros. apparently wants Joaquin Phoenix to play the Joker in one of the sequels to Matt Reeves’ The Batman. And it gets worse, as Phoenix wouldn’t be playing the Arthur Fleck Joker but rather, a completely different one. As absurd as this may seem, we should note that this intel comes to us from the same sources who also told us Viola Davis was returning for The Suicide Squad, a Green Lantern show is coming to HBO Max, Black Adam will appear in Shazam! 3 and J.J. Abrams had been offered a Superman and/or Lantern movie, all of which were later confirmed, so we’ve no reason to doubt it.
If you ask me, I suppose their thinking is that this would neatly sidestep any questions about continuity while also giving Todd Phillips free rein to move Fleck’s story forward in his own Joker sequels. Word is that Phillips is absolutely aghast at the plan though and is trying to stop it from happening, and he may get his way. From what we understand, it’s just something that Warner Bros. would like to make happen if they can – it’s not set in stone just yet.
Obviously, this is a straight-up terrible idea, but it seems the studio is hellbent on throttling the Joker golden goose. Whether it’ll end up coming to fruition or not is hard to say, but I imagine Joaquin Phoenix would rather eat nails than do it. In any case, at this stage, our sources – the same ones who also said that Mahershala Ali was set to play a large role in The Batman before dropping out, and that The CW was developing an Arrow spinoff for Katherine McNamara way back in March, both of which have since been confirmed – have said it’s definitely an idea that’s on the table and we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.